20 injured as LG fans shoot down promotional balloons

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People love a good freebie, and they’re often not afraid to step beyond the bounds of common sense to snag one. People like the Korean smartphone fans who badly wanted to take home a free LG G2 from an event in Seoul.

All LG wanted to do was build excitement for its new flagship phone at the company’s “G in the Cloud” event. The plan: to launch 100 balloons into the Korean sky, each with a coupon for a free G2 inside. See what they did there?

While the company was probably hoping that the helium-filled balloons would gently drift back down to the ground of their own accord, some attendees had other plans. Why wait for things to run their course naturally when you can accelerate the process with, say, a BB gun?

Korea Times’ report doesn’t specifically say that those who were injured were shot, only that 20 people required medical attention. If past smartphone launch events in Asia have taught us anything it’s that people are going to get hurt, BB guns or no.

Fights have broken out in front of Apple stores, BlackBerry fans have been trampled, store doors and windows have been smashed. When it comes to getting your hands on the latest and greatest device from a beloved manufacturer, decorum often goes straight out the window.

LG’s taking some heat for only having 20 security guards present at the event, but who’s to say how many would have been enough to keep everyone in attendance safe. Even with 200 police present at the Indonesian launch of the BlackBerry Bold 9750 90 people were hurt — and that was just a crowd of 1,000 looking to get a discount on a phone.

With the promise of free phones floating in the sky above, LG may have needed several platoons to keep things under control.